The Best Pizza in Naples… and Tourists Still Don’t Know About It

Naples is a city where pizza is not just food, but identity. Walk a few streets in any direction, and you’ll find an opinion on where the ‘best’ pizza lives.

Pizza here is daily life. It’s lunch on a workday, dinner after a long shift, food for families, students, and football fans.

It’s affordable by design, made to feed everyone, and judged harshly because people eat it constantly.

Fresh from a day of exploring Naples, we grabbed a bite to eat with Napoli local, tour guide and photographer Alex Tione, someone who knows the city not as a checklist of highlights, but as a lived-in place. Alex recommended Bella Napoli, saying emphatically, “This is a real pizzeria. This is the real Napoli.”

It’s safe to say that our expectations were high.

Bella Napoli

Located a stone’s throw from the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, Bella Napoli feels like Naples distilled. The prices are low (€6 for a margherita), the portions generous, and the atmosphere unmistakably Neapolitan.

Inside, the homely and traditional dining area offers a view of the pizzas being crafted and cooked, allowing you to watch the chefs at work while Mary and Jesus guard the till.

On matchdays, the place fills with the sound of football chatter. On other days, it feeds a steady stream of locals.

The pizza is classic Napolitano – a thin base with a good amount of puff on the crust. The margherita was perfectly balanced with just the right amount of passata and cheese to deliver a tasty punch without making the base sloppy. The Diavola wasn’t too spicy and had a sprinkle of meat (if we’re picky, we wouldn’t have minded a little more). With a large menu featuring fried starters, pasta and plenty of pizzas, there’s something for everyone.

Bella Napoli isn’t especially well-known among tourists. You won’t see queues of visitors clutching guidebooks, and that’s the point. It’s cheap, honest, and genuinely up there with the very best pizza in Naples – the kind of place locals might mention casually, without fanfare, because for them it’s just their regular spot.

“The price, the taste, the atmosphere, everything about this restaurant is the real Neapolitan pizza,” explained Alex. And it’s hard to argue with the truth.

Bella Napoli. Via Francesco Galeota. Open Tuesday to Sunday: 12:30pm to 3pm and 7:30pm to 12am